An adventure playground has been opened to the community at a Bradford primary school after its success in a television voting contest.

State-of-the-art facilities have been installed on what used to be a boggy, derelict area of grass in the grounds of Lister Primary School in Heaton.

The school was awarded £50,000 towards the project in the People’s Millions competition, which saw staff and children pitch their plans to TV viewers on ITV’s regional news.

Funding was complete when Bradford Council granted the scheme £20,000 from the Ward Investment Fund, a pot of money generated by the authority’s involvement in the sale of Leeds-Bradford International Airport.

The playground is open to children out of school hours and its addition is a timely boost for the area at the start of the summer holidays.

Head teacher Moira Hunt said: “This is a really exciting day for us. We have worked really hard towards this for a very long time. We are really pleased with it because we think we have hit the right pitch so that it won’t be attractive for older children.”

Children at neighbouring schools, Heaton St Barnabas, Margaret McMillan and St Cuthbert and the First Martyrs primaries, joined senior pupils at Lister Primary at a celebration event yesterday. They entertained the Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Mohammed Jamil, with a series of dance, music and gymnastics performances before he cut a ribbon to officially open the facility.

He said: “This will benefit the children’s development and help them achieve improvements. It will also bring improvement to the school facilities and access to the community.”

Andy Meeham, the school’s business manager, said: “We are immensely proud to have this new playground, not just for the school but for the community. Before Christmas it was just a lot of grass. The children assure me it is fantastic.”

The playground has monkey bars, rope bridges, a climbing frame and a slide.